The left never radicalized, the center has just been dragged further and further right until we became radical by not moving.
When I was 10 I asked my dad to explain politics to me and when he was done with his shockingly nuanced description of the American bipartisan system he asked me how I would structure the government if it was up to me. I described a world where everyone was paid what they needed, had a house, and enough food. He said, “Void-juice that’s great, but you should know most people call that communism”.
I’ve told this story on here before but @void–juice’s story made me think of it again…
My dad worked for NASA and he did a lot of work on the telescopes that went up in the late 90s/early 2000s. I was a curious kid and I knew his work really mattered to my dad so I was always asking about when things were getting launched. Often the answer was “we’re waiting on Congress for funding” or similar. And one time… I was probably about 10 years old, I said “well… I guess that makes sense. I’m sure going to space is one of the most expensive things we do.”
And my dad looks at me… I’ll never forget the look on his face. He goes “What do you think the most expensive thing we do as a country is?”
And I hemmed and I hawed because I was sure it wasn’t the space program even though I was sure that had to be in the top three. My first guess was education. Everyone had to go to school. Nope. Roads? Bridges? Cars were everywhere. Nope. What about… things like electricity? Phone lines? Cable? Nope.
“The military. By a factor of ten at least.”
I was gobsmacked. It was peacetime (at least by most reckoning… this was post-Gulf War and well before 9/11). What the hell was the military doing being so expensive if we weren’t doing anything with it?
So that was the moment I became a “radical.” Because that was absolutely stupid and continues to be.
